A little chuckle at 'fussy'-- maybe so, maybe so-- and then a proper stinkeye at the suggestion he'd try anything. Really?

"I did, actually," he says, with an air of 'why are people so weird about this', "last year. Saw her kids. My da. Not that he knew who I was."

The pull he takes from the bottle is long and deep, in the manner of one doing anything to avoid saying more.